MOOSE JAW — Mayor Clive Tolley has admitted that he discussed the firing of the Board of Revision at a community event even though city council had not announced the board’s future at the time.
“Yes, I let it slip () that we were going to be thinking about contracting that work out as opposed to having a Board of Revision. And then I, of course, realized it had been in (executive) committee, but it hadn’t been made public at a city council meeting,” he said during a media scrum after the .
“So, I apologized for that comment. But I don’t think any harm was done. I think that people were there (at the chamber forum) to talk about their assessment, their appeals, and try and understand the system better. And unfortunately, I made a slip-up.”
The Board of Revision (BOR) is a quasi-judicial tribunal that hears property assessment appeals and determines if an error has been made in valuations. The BOR is the first step in the appeal process, while the Saskatchewan Municipal Board (SMB) is the next step if either the municipality or property owner disagrees with the initial decision.
When asked whether council had talked about replacing the board behind closed doors during its May 9 executive committee meeting, Tolley said he couldn’t remember when or where council had discussed the issue.
“My recollection isn’t that great … ,” he remarked. “But I do know that it had not been part of a council meeting, so it had not been passed at council.”
Although the issue wasn’t discussed in public at council before his slip up, Tolley noted that such discussions have occurred. Last June, he was on the board and joined chairman Terry Gabel during an in-camera presentation to council.
“So I think there’s been discussions going on in the community for quite a few years about what other communities are doing, do they have a Board of Revision, (and) are they contracting it out,” Tolley said.
Asked whether the media and public should have heard council’s discussion about replacing the board, Tolley said that these are “big issues for the community.” He reiterated that he attended the chamber forum to understand better what the community thinks about property assessments and related issues.
“I don’t think there’s been any behind-closed-doors drama to any of this. I think it’s been an honest communication and honest discussion within the community and within council about how best to serve the citizens,” Tolley said. “Assessments are a bit of a mystery to most people … .”
Council hired a private company — Western Municipal Consulting (WMC) — to handle the initial property assessment appeals and see if it “gets a better experience” with more favourable outcomes, he continued. If this idea doesn’t work out, a future council can reinstitute a citizen-led board.
The Saskatchewan Assessment Management Agency (SAMA) handles property valuations for most cities — including Moose Jaw — unless those cities hire their own assessment agencies, Tolley pointed out. Council hopes that WMC can reduce the number of appeals sent to the SMB since it’s expensive to defend SAMA’s assessments.
Tolley noted that the citizen-led Board of Revision only had two members this year — the chairman and secretary — because of a lack of experienced members.
“It’s a work in progress. We’re trying to do things to improve the process for the city and the citizens of Moose Jaw … ,” he added. “We’ll just follow it through and see what seems to work the best.”
